





"ii\, ^ ^T • ii^/». ^ViiiiT* 






T 11 1-: 



GREAT CAVERNS 



KENTUCKY 



DIAMOND GAVE, MAMMOTH GAVE, 

HUNDKED DOME GAVE. 



REV. o. s. bail.i:y. 



CHICAGO: 
CHURCH & GOODMAN, 

51 La Snlle Street. 



95 1^0 s- 






^ 



Entered according to Act of Codltcss, in the yeai 1S63, by 

CHUKCH & GOODMAN, 

lu the Clerk's Office of the District Court of tiie United States 
for the Northern District of Illinois. 



Chorch, Goodman & Gushing, Printers, 
John Conauan, Stereotyper. 



Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/greatcavernsofkeOObail 



TO 
MY DAUGHTER, 

ALICE EULALIA, 

WHO, 

ON MY UKPARTURE FOR THE SODTH 

IN PURSUIT OF HEALTH, 

IKQUESTEI) ME TO WRITE FOR HER A 

I'KSCRIPTION OF MAMMOTH CAVE, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS 

AFKEC'lIoNATKLY DEniUATKD. 



20 



'19 



LPI8 



t. 


Entrance Stairs. 


2. 


Rotunda. 


3. 


Cleopatra's Needle. 


4. 


Serpent's Head. 


5. 


Grottos. 


6. 


Main Avenue. 


7, 


Mammoth Stalagmite. 


8. 


Armadillo Stalagmite. 


9. 


Leaf Stalactites. 


10. 


Cascade. 


11. 


Variety of Stalactites. 


12 


Ship's Keel. 


13. 


Magnolia Flower. 


14. 


Columns. 


15 


Diamond Spring. 


1(>. 


Eviscerated Body. 


17. 
18. 


j- Grottos. 


19. 


Lot's Wife. 



iO. Diamond Grotto. 



DIAMOND CAVE. 



CHAPTER I. 



DIAMOND CAVE 



The vast and beautiful caverns of Kentucky 
are justly ranked among tlie wonders of the 
world. Durmg a tour in the South, in 1860, 
I availed myself of an opportunity to visit and 
explore three of the most noted ones, a de- 
scription of which I will now attem])t to give. 
These were tlie Diamond Cave, Mammoth 
Cave and the Hundred Dome Cave. Tliey 
are near the Green River, in Barron and Ed- 
monson counties, and all of them can be 
reached very readily by a ride of from two to 
eight miles from Glasgow Junction, a station 
on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 
about ninety miles south of Louisville. 



UIAMOiND CAVE. 



I visited the Diamond CaA^e January 17, 
1860. It is owned by Mr. Geo. M. Proctor. 
It was first discovered in July, 1859. It is 
sometimes called Richardson Cave, after 
Prof. T. G. Richardson, of New Orleans, 
one of its first explorers. It is situated less 
than two miles from Glasgow Junction, on 
the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and 
about six miles from the world-renowned 
Mammoth Cave. 

Accompanied by Mr. Proctor and several 
other gentlemen, we went in a hack a mile 
and a-half over gentle hills thinly covered 
with rather scrubby trees, until we reached a 
farm situated upon the gentle slope of a vast 
basin, which seemed some two miles across, 
the ground gently descending toward a com- 
mon center, where the water which fell upon 
it gathered in a little pool, and eventually sunk 
through the crevices of the rocks. 

About a quarter of a mile from the center 
of this Gfreat basin is the entrance to the cave. 



DIAMOND CAVE. 9 

It is ill the midst of a smooth field, which 
could be cultivated up to the very mouth of 
the cave." The mouth originally was a mere 
crevice in the ground, which had to be enlarg- 
ed by blasting before it could be conveniently 
passed. x\ small building has been erected 
over the mouth of the cave. 

Entering the building, you find an abun- 
dance of lamps, and each visitor and guide 
takes as many of them as he can conveniently 
carry. You do not need to change your dress. 
You commence descending from the center of 
the building by a substantial stairway through 
the rock for forty feet. Here you land on a 
I'ocky floor. ISTow pause and look around and 
above you. You are in a magnificent rotunda, 
seventy feet in diameter and thirty feet high. 
Its form is somewhat irregular, but from the 
roof and sides is hanging a great variety of 
stalactites, from one inch to ten feet in di- 
ameter. These are formed by the dropping 
of water impregnated with tlie substance of 



10 DIAMOND CAVE. 

calcareous spar. From many of them the 
water is gently dropping in winter and their 
formation is constantly going on. But in sum- 
mer, I am told, they are dry. 

Passing behind the stairway you see a stal- 
agmite rising from the floor five feet high and 
six or eight inches in diameter, called Cleo- 
patra's Needle. It is of a light brown color. 
Near this, from the ceiling above, appears a 
huge Serpent's Head, or ratber upper jaw, 
five feet long, two feet wide with stalactites 
hanging from each side of the jaw like enor- 
mous fangs. 

Another immense stalactite hangs from the 
ceiling, resembling a closed lily with the head 
hanging down. This stalactite is ten feet long 
and as large at the top as a sugar hogshead. 

Most of the stalactites are covered with a 
clayey oxide of iron which gives them a light 
brown color, but some are white and clear as 
an icicle. Various little alcoves or grottos 
open in the walls at different heights, all ricli- 



DlAI\[OXD CAVE. 11 

ly stiulded with tlie most be.'iutiful forma- 
tions. Sometimes you see huge stalagmites 
encrusted with a kind of coral formation. It 
resembles petrified Irish moss. 

Mr. Proctor, the owner of the cave, has 
built a substantial plank walk through it, 
raised from the floor and protected by rail- 
ings. This precaution is taken in order to 
preserve its beauty. The floor itself is, part 
of the way, a bed of crystals Avhich Avould be 
crushed and spoiled by walking on them. 
You pass onward, sometimes ascending and 
sometimes descending, through a varied av- 
enue half a mile long, turning in almost every 
direction. Sometimes it is twenty or thirty 
feet wide, and then again just wide enough to 
allow you to pass, and from six to fifty feet in 
height. 

Here and there are some openings which 
have not yet been explored, but all, as far as 
you can see, abounding with the most beauti- 
ful stalactitic formations. I cannot describe 



12 DIAMOND CAVE. 

the thousand wonders which everywhere meet 
the eye. 

There is that mammoth stalagmite, fifteen 
feet high and twenty-five feet through, big as 
a five ton haystack, one sohd stalagmite, and 
the largest one in the known world. 

And then just by its side is the Armadillo 
Stalagmite, which looks like a huge negro's 
head, ten feet in diameter, and the wool made 
of little globular stalagmites all over it, from 
the size of a pea to that of a robin's egg. 

The ceiling in several places is nearly white 
and is thickly indented with holes half an inch 
deep and the same in diameter. This is call- 
ed the Yermiculated Ceiling. It looks some 
like honeycomb, and some like a huge waffle 
cake. 

See those magnificent leaf stalactites of 
every size, from an inch to ten feet in length ; 
some of them two or three feet broad at the 
top, and from one to six inches thick. How 
closely they hang together, so you can hardly 



DIAMOXi) OAVK. 13 

thrust your arm between them. Tliere is that 
beautiful row of tliem, six or seven in num- 
ber, and of graduated length, from four to six: 
feet. Strike them gently with a stick and they 
give the different notes of a piano, according 
to their different sizes. 

But here is the Cascade, not of water, but 
of magnificent stalagmites, in perfect imita- 
tation of a cascade. You go down it by a 
good stairway and then look up. It is a suc- 
cession of cascades for fifty or sixty feet in 
height. Those are not icicles hanging down 
there from the shelving rocks beside the falls, 
but stalactites, many of them six feet long 
and three or four inches through. 

Pass onward through that great avenue full 
of all sorts of formations, some like icicles, 
some like a banner partly furled or drooping 
around its staff"; some are like sheets through 
which the light of your lamp shines and shows 
beautiful colors. How they sparkle arv)und 
you at times as if they were a mass of ul;i- 
monds ! 



14 DIAMOND CAVE. 

Now you see that great Magnolia Flower. 
It is six or eight feet long and four feet in di- 
ameter, hanging down from the ceiling. It is 
composed of stalactitic plates or leaves of cal- 
careous spar, and strikingly resembles the 
magnificent flower of the Magnolia Grandi- 
flora. You see around huge columns beauti- 
fully ornamented with cornices, moulding and 
curiously carved work. You find also several 
springs of water most delicious. There is a 
spring six feet long, two feet wide and a foot 
deep. The water is perfectly transparent, 
arched over with crystals, its sides and bot- 
tom a mass of glowing gems, which glitter 
through the clear water unobscured by any 
sediment. 

But, havinoj taken a refreshin^j draua^ht from 
the spring, you pass on, IsTow put your lamp 
inside the hollow column of stalagmite which 
is somewhat larger than a man's body. You 
see every appearance of ribs, 'flesh, blood ves- 
sels and the red muscles, as the light shines 



DJAMU.ND CAVE. l-j 

through it. What strange resemblances these 
stones take ! It surely looks like an eviscer- 
ated body. 

Now you pass a grotto or two, and ascend- 
ing a few feet, you see Lot's Wife, not a pil- 
lar of salt, but a beautiful, clear stalagmite 
about four feet high, and resembling a veiled 
female draped in white. You now come into 
Diamond Grotto, which is tw^enty feet in di- 
ameter and ten feet high. The floor is cover- 
ed with crystals. Here you see innumerable 
forms of beauty which I cannot describe. The 
stalactitic formations here are of the most ex- 
quisite delicacy, many of them almost as clear 
as glass. 

Returning now near the entrance of the 
cave, by a little circuitous route, you go be- 
low^ the floor of the Rotunda we first describ- 
ed. Passing now through a kind of Gothic 
archway, you enter a palace of crystals, with 
beautiful formations covering tlie ceiling, floor 
and walls. Stalactit^md stalagmites abound 



16 DIAMOND CAVE. 

everywhere, some reaching in slim columns 
from floor to ceiling. 

Yoii reluctantly leave this place and retrace 
your steps to the foot of the staircase which 
reaches to the mouth of the cave. Here, if 
you wish, you can step aside a few feet and 
see a mass of hmnan bone.s, perhaps a wagon 
load. Was this beautiful place once the haunt 
of robbers, or was it not more probably used 
by the Indians for burying their dead, by 
throvv^ing them down through the crevice of 
the rocks which formed the entrance ? 

Though the proprietor of this cave has es- 
tablished the excellent rule for the preserva- 
tion of its beauty that no specimens shall be 
carried away, yet he was generous enough to 
give me some beautiful specimens for the cabi- 
nets of Shurtleff College and Chicago Uni- 
versity. 

This cave surpasses all others yet known in 
the exquisite beauty of its stalactitic and crys- 
talline formations. 4A 



1. 


Entrance. 


2. 


Pit. 


;{. 


Auduhon Avenue. 


-1. 


.■Main Avenue. 


5. 


Rotunda. 


(j" 


Cl'.urch. 


7 


Gothic Avenue. 


S.' 


Post Oak i'illar. 


0. 


I'e^ister Room. 


in. 


Gothic Chapel. 


11. 


Giant's Coflin. 


12. 


Deserted Chainber. 


18. 


Wooden Bowl Chamber, 


14. 


Martha's Palace. 


15. 


Richardson's Spring. 


Ki. 


Side Saddle Pit. 


IT. 


Minerva's Dome. 


1-;. 


Labyriiith. 


10. 


Gorin's Dome. 


20. 


Bottomless Pit. 


21. 


Reveller's Hall. 


22. 


Yale of Humility. 


28. 


Scotchman's Trap. 


24. 


Buchanan Avenue. 


25. 


Fat Plan's JNIisery. 


26. 


Great Relief. 


27. 


Bacon Chamber. 


28. 


River Hall. 


29. 


Dead Sea. 


80. 


River. 


31. 


Acute Angle. 


32. 


Invalid Cottages. 


33. 


Star Chaml)er. 




MAMMOTH CAVE. 



CHAPTER II 



MAM310TH CAVE 



I visited this one of the wonders of tlie 
world Jan. 18,1860. Leaving Glasgow Junc- 
tion on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 
at eight in the morning, I rode on horseback 
eight miles over w^ooded hills, which, in many 
places, w^ere very steep and rocky. I passed 
but three or four houses on the route. Tlie 
A\'hole country around is made up of precipit- 
ous hills and vast basins wdiich are deeply de- 
pi-essed in the centre. Some of them, not 
more than live hundred feet across from side 
to side, seemed to be one hundred feet 
lower in the centre than at the edge. Im- 
mense (Ti'vicos Mt l]ie bjltoms of these 1 .'isins 



20 MAMMOTH OAYE. 

permit the waters which are gathered by these 
great funnels to pass into the nnderground 
streams. No streams of water are found on- 
the surface for miles around, except Green 
River, which seems to be the outlet of these 
subterranean streams. No creeks, brooks nor 
rivulets exist upon the surface, though the 
country^ is a constant succession of hills and 
hollows. The cliifs, the rocks by the road- 
side and even the small stones seem full of 
holes, recesses and grottos, as if all of them 
were trying to make little caverns in imitation 
of the great Mammoth Cave, just as children 
are prone to imitate the curious pranks and 
wonderful feats of older persons. 

The Cave House was reached at ten o'clock. 
This is a large hotel kept by Mr. L. J. Proc- 
tor, for the accommodation of visitors. Soon 
as a guide could be called, and his lamps were 
ready, we started for the Cave. The guide is 
a negro, very gentlemanly and courteous in 
his bearing, full of wit, keen in liis observa- 



:\5A.MM(>TII (-AVE. 21 

ti()ii8, and quite a pliilosoplier you wiil tl>.iijk, 
as he gives you his theories of the various 
formations, tlie hoics and the irhys and ic/iere- 
fores, interspersed with true nigger wit and 
fun. He has an elegant command of language 
whicli would do honor to a member of Con- 
gress. 

You descend a steep ravine for a quarter of 
a mile, and then turning a little to the right 
you are at the mouth of the Cave. This is a 
quarter of a mile from the bank of Green 
River, toward which the ground rapidly de- 
scends. The entrance to the cave is an open- 
ing in tlie side of the hill about 25 feet in 
diameter. You at once commence descend- 
ing at an angle of 45 degrees, and go down 
about one hundred feet, keeping near the rocks 
on the right to avoid a yawning pit seventy 
feet deep right at the moutli. It is partly 
filled with the ruins of an old ice house once 
constructed in it, but which allowed all the 
ice to melt. 



22 MxVMilOTII CAVE. 

You iio^\" adyanee through a vast stone 
arch^vay, in a wide avenue ; passing a log 
cabin constructed within it for the preserva- 
tion of fresh meat for the Hotel, you, in the 
distance of a few rods, come into the Rotun- 
da, a vast room 100 feet acrogs and 40 feet 
high. Here you see a countless number of 
common bats clinging to tlie ceiling by their 
feet, their heads downward, and so close to- 
gether that you cannot see the wall between 
them. The)' are in a torpid state in winter, 
and in summer they leave the cave. This 
portion of the cave is aptly termed by some 
the Hatter I/. 

You novr pass into the main avenue, which 
is about thirty feet wide. The walls and ceil- 
ing are of limestone rock, much of it nearly 
as white as a plastered wall. You leave Au- 
dubon Avenue to your left. It is half a mile 
long. We have not time to explore it. 

As you pass along the main avenue you find 
laro-e wooden ^^ats sunk in the earth or amon^r 



mam:\[OTH cave. 2;^ 

the rocks, which once were used for leaching 
the earth in the bottom of the cave to make 
saltpetre for the manufacture of gur.powder 
in 1812. Old pump logs lie along your path- 
way through which they convey the liquid to 
the mouth of the cave by means of a force 
pump. The timber yet remains perfectly 
sound. Here is also a cart road where oxen 
and carts were used by the men of 1812. The 
ruts are deeply cut in the rocks along the road. 
The tracks of the oxen once made in the soft, 
half-formed rock in some places, are now dis- 
tinctly visible, the rock now thoroughly har- 
dened around it. A pile of old corn cobs in 
one place, your guide says, were left there by 
feeding the oxen on corn in the cave. But 
he gives you a cunning nigger laugli as you 
suggest that he can easily replenisli the pile 
when antiquarians have carried away these 
venerable relics — the corn cobs of 1812. 

You travel over an irregular floor ami<l 
piles of loose rocks scattered about. Some- 



24 MAMxMOTll CAVE. 

times the floor seems to glitter with crystals, 
and while yon stop to pick up some imperfect 
crystals of quartz, yom* guide suggests that 
there are more pints than quartz there. But 
now under the edge of a shelving rock you 
find what seems to be petrified wood, the 
grains of which are very distinct. You soon 
come to the Church, a mere widening of the 
avenue, with a large recess for a pulpit and a 
shelving rock for a gallery. Religious meet- 
ings are sometimes held here by the crowd 
of visitors who resort to the cave. 

You now come to the Giant's Coffin, a 
huge rock upon your right, some forty feet 
long and strikingly resembling a coffin. Here 
you leave the large avenue, and turning to 
the right around the foot of the Giant's Cof- 
fin, you go through a narrow passage down 
into the Deserted Chamber. This is simply 
a kind of room in the rocks. Entering an- 
other narrov/ passage, you proceed onward 
some rods and you reach the Wooden Bowl 



MAMMOTH CAVK. 25 

Chamber, so called because its tirst modern 
explorers found in it a wooden bowl. Pass- 
ing onward you soon descend a flight of 
wooden steps ten feet and yon are in Mar- 
tha's Palace, a beautiful room 25 feet in di- 
ameter, the ceiling of which •> limestone, 
exhibiting various forms of beauty. 

Passing around in a spacious avenue you 
And Richardson's Spring, a beautiful fountain 
of clear water, in a clayey basin right in the 
middle of the avenue. The water comes into 
it through a beautiful, smooth channel six 
inches wide, cut by action of the water into 
the soft rock and Arm clay across the floor. 
The water is refreshing. 

You now pass on through a beautiful arch- 
way of stone for several rods and come to the 
Sidesaddle Pit. It is right in your path and 
fifty feet deep. Going around the pit, you 
are soon in Minerva's Dome. This is about 
thirty feet high, and your guide here takes 
from his pocket a little package, lays it on a 



26 MAMMOTH CAVE. 

rock and sets the paper envelope on fire. In 
a moment you have a grand illumination. 
All the region round about you is brilliantly 
lighted for a minute or two, long enough for 
you to take a survey of the beautiful and 
grand objects around you. This is the Ben- 
gal light, made of pulverized saltpetre, sul- 
phur apd antimony. 

Proceeding onward, you pass over rocks 
and soon enter the Labyrinth, a winding, 
narrow passage for several rods. Please ex- 
cuse me for indefiniteness in stating the 
distance along these avenues and crooked 
passages. Leaving the Labyrinth you go 
down a flight of stairs, up another, then down 
again, and now you run up a little bye path 
and at the end you look through a hole in the 
wall, three feet in diameter, while your guide 
goes around to another opening and lights a 
Bengal light and illuminates a vast dome 
between you and him. You look downward 
till your head is almost dizzy but cannot see 



MAMMOTH <'AVE. 27 

the bottom, for it is one hundred feet deey) ; 
and then you look upward one hundred feet 
to the top, if your nerves are steady enough 
to allow you to put your head through the 
hole far enough to get a full view. This is 
Gorin's Dome, one of the grandest sights in 
Mammoth Cave. 

Return from this bye path now and pass, 
on, and be careful, for here yawns the Bot- 
tomless Pit, right at your feet. Your guide 
lights a Bengal light and throws it down the 
Pit. As it sinks down and down it becomes 
less and less until it looks only like a star. 
He throws down a stone, Vvdiile you hold your 
watch and count three seconds or more be- 
fore you hear it splash in the water beneath, 
indicating a depth of at least one hundred 
and fifty feet. An iron railing prevents any 
special danger of fiilling as you pass along 
its brink. You now pass over the Pit on a 
wooden bridge and take a view of Sh.elby' s 
Dome, a vast cavity above you and immedi- 



28 JMA.MMOTH CAA'^E. 

ately over tke Pit. Going soon onvv^ard, you 

soon reach T^eveller's Hall, an expansion of 

tlie avenue, with a tolerably smooth floor, 

v/here parties sometimes stop for a dance, 

hence tlie name. But as you leave Kevelier's 

-Hail you soon enter the Valley of Humility, 

as all revellers should. Here you must bend 

or creep,^for the passage is only about three 

feet high for several rods. But you come out 

among rough piles of rocks. 

. Here is the Scotchman's Trap, a triangular 

stone eight feet across and a foot thick,,stand- 

ing on one edge and leaning over a hole 

beneath, through which you must j)ass. The 

apex of the trap is caught against a point 

of projecting rock in the ceiling above and 

is thus prevented from falling and closing the 

passage. As your guide descends through 

the hole beneath the trap, he repeats the 

poetic couplet, 

" The Scotchman's Trap is set by a trigger, 

And if it should fall it would catch a poor nigger." 



MAMMOTH CAVE. 29 

\\^Iietlier you admire liis poetry or not you 
must follow him through the Trap Avith the 
interesting feeling that you are liable to be 
caught there yourself as well as the "poor 
nigger." 

But you have now reached Buchanan's Ave- 
nue, whose height requires you to lop your 
head a little, as it is said President Buchanan 
does; hence the name. Onward again and 
you are soon in the Winding Way, which 
leads to Fat Man's Misery, a mere crevice a 
foot wide, through which you must edge 
along for half a dozen rods. This will make 
you sweat if you have much of a corporosity. 
But squeeze along and you will soon come to 
a wide avenue, which you will think is right- 
ly named. The Great Relief. Here you stop 
to rest a little and take a few long breaths. 

You can pass on now at your leisure. Soon 
you see overhead encrusted in the ceiling the 
Odd Fellow's Links, a stalactitic formation 
of three links, about six feet lono- altoirether. 



30 MAMMOTH CAVE. 

You now enter River Hall. You turn aside 
to the right to explore Bacon Chamber, 
where the ceiling looks precisely as if it was 
thickly hung with hams in whitewashed bags. 
But they would be hard eating, for they are 
solid stone. Near these hams is a perfectly 
round cavity over head like a potash kettle 
thrust into the ceiling bottom up. 

Now you proced toward the E-rver which 
runs through Mammoth Cave. You go over 
a muddy shelf of rock from which the high 
waters of the river have recently receded. 
Heavy rains the last few days have made a 
sudden rise in the river of twenty or thirty 
feet in perpendicular height. On your left, 
and fifteen or twenty feet below you, lies the 
Dead Sea, in which the water is now twenty- 
tive feet deep. Look to your footing, or from 
your slippery path you may tumble into it. 

Creeping carefully along you come to the 
river, which is now so high that the ceiling 
over its channel is still immersed sovcr;i] feet 



MA.M.MOTH CAVE. 31 

under the surface of tlie water. You cannot 
cross it until the water subsides. Nor can 
you catch any of the eyeless fish Avhicli 
abound there ; but in the summer you may 
get them. They are white, and from two to 
seven inches in length. They are sometimes 
found in springs m the mouth of caves in this 
vicinity, and sometimes are drawn up in the 
well-buckets of citizens. The river in Mam- 
moth Cave, at an ordinary stage of water, is 
about foi'ty feet wide and twenty-five feet 
deep, and doubtless issues into Green River. 
The eyeless fish are sometimes found in this 
part of Green River, and doubtless come 
from the Cave. 

You may now retrace your steps until you 
reach the Giant's CofRn. Leaving the Coffin 
again, you 2>i"0ceed onward in the main ave- 
nue. At the distance of a quarter of a mile 
you turn to the left, making an acute angle. 
The avenue is fifty feet wide. The air is 
pure, and you feel quite at your ease after 



32 MAMJSrOTII CAVE. 

sc|ueeziiig through the difficult passages in 
the other part of your route. Onward for 
another quarter of a mile'^vnd you pass some 
little stone cottages, erected hj men within 
the cave about seventeen years ago, where a 
dozen consumptive persons resided, by order 
of their physicians, for several months. But 
all ofvthem eventually died of consumption. 
Passing the cottages, you after a while see 
the lofty ceiling, black in places, like clouds 
in the sky. Soon it looks dark as if a heavy 
storm was gatheimg above yon, and at length 
the sky seems entirely overcast. You ^re 
now in the Star Chamber. Put your lights 
away or blow them nearly all out, and look 
up to the roof sixty or seventy feet high. 
How intensely dark ! But now you see the 
stars glimmering from the roof They are 
whitened j)oints of rock projecting through 
the blackened gypsum which covers the ceil- 
ing. The Star Chamber is truly magnificent. 
Yon now return to the Coffin again, and 



MAMMOTH CA^'E. 3B 

pass it and proceed in the direction of the 
mouth of the cave. But you leave the main 
avenue by ascending a flight of steps to your 
left, fifteen feet high, and enter Gothic Ave- 
nue. Passing onward for a dozen rods, you 
see the Post Oak Pillar, a stalactitic forma- 
tion as large around as your body. Onward 
some rods further you are in the Register 
room, a vast widening of the avenu^, whose 
walls and ceiling are covered with the names 
of visitors. 

Proceeding still onward, you reach the 
Gothic Chapel. Here are the principal sta- 
lactites of the cave. You see the Pillars of 
Hercules, Ctesar's Pillar, Pompey's Pillar and 
the Pulpit, all magnificent stalactitic forma- 
tions reaching from the floor to the ceiling, 
some ten feet high, and from two to ten feet 
in diameter. From the ceiling are hung a 
multitude of stalactites from an inch to four 
feet in lengtli. Tiie finest ones have evident- 
ly been broken ofl'niid cniTied nwny as sjteci- 



34 MAMMOTH CAVE. 

mens, and the cave has thus been robbed of 
much of its beauty. 

It is related that a couple were married in 
the Gothic Chapel a few years ago. The 
mother of the bride havinsj told the daug^hter 
she hoped she would never marry that man 
upon the face of the earth, she concluded to 
marry him under the earth. 

You novv^ return to the mouth of the cave, 
having travelled some seven or eight miles, 
so says your guide. There are, however, 
beauties and wonders beyond the river which 
will richly reward you for another day's ex- 
plorations when the water of the river is low 
enough to permit you to cross. Your guide 
can furnish you with beautiful specimens of 
satin gypsum obtained from the other side, 
and also some of the eyeless crawfish which 
he has caught. 

But you have now seen one of the wonders 
of the world. As to its vast extent, it is 
unsurpassed. Its avenues, all combined, are 



MAMMOTH CAVE. 35 

more than a liiindred miles in extent. I3ut 
you are willing to leave the remaining ninety 
miles for some other clay's explorations. By 
tliis time your stomach, also, feels cavernous 
and your jaws carnivorous, and you are 
strongly inclined to explore the dining-room 
of the hotel, and then seek an easy place to 
rest your wearied body. But your thoughts 
have found food for many days. 



1 Entrance. 

2 Reception Hall. 




Spring Avenue. 

4 Return Av. 

5 M. Antony's Pit. 

6 Coral Reef. 
T Grand Entr. Av. 

8 Wall Street. 

9 Ladies' Av. 

10 Canada Hall. 

11 Hill of Science. 

12 Flora'3 Wreath. 

13 Falstaffs Punishment 

14 Broad Way. 

15 Dripping Dome. 

16 Court's Avenue. 

17 Ocean Wave. 

18 Pine Apple Avenue. 

19 Elephant. 

20 Vineyard Avenue. 

21 Grape Vine. 

22 Cabinet. 
28 Twin Dome?. 

24 Cupid's Fountain. 

25 Echo Avenue 

26 Dome Avenue. 5! 

5: 



■T Kverctt'sDorae 

S Clay's Dome. 

!9 Mammoth D. 

'.0 Canopied Pit. 
29 SI Eureka Dome. 

82 Kiver Avenue. 
•'3 Temple, 
oi Oliio Monument. 
35 Franklin Monum't. 
86 Falls of Minnehaha 
8T River. 
8S Fairfield Avenue. 

39 Kentucky Dome. 

40 l'u"ch's Trials. 

41 Vulcan's Anvil. 

42 Crystal Rocks. 

43 Mollie's Boudoir & 
Bailey's Dome. 

44 Natural Bridge. 

45 Washington Monu- 
ment. 

46 living's Monum't. 

47 Kanes' Dome. 

48 Alpine Pass. 

49 Fluted Dome. 

50 Prison Hall. 

51 Nellie's Chamber. 

52 Gibbon's Rest. 
.53 Ruins of Palmyra. 
.54 Duncan's Avenue. 
.55 Boone's Monum't. 

56 Cathedral. 

57 Vestry. 

58 Black Donald's Pit. 

59 Wool's Avenue. 

60 Capitola's Trap. 

61 Hurricane Avenue. 



IIUNDKED DO:,iE CAVE. 



CHAPTER III 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE 



This cave is one of tlie grandest, in its 
subterranean scenery, of any yet known. 
Though not so extensive as Mammoth Cave, 
yet it will take you an entire day, or more, 
to explore its vast avenues, its magnificent 
domes, and examine its beautiful and varied 
formations. 

The entrance of this cave has long been 
known, but its extent and grandeur have 
remained unrevealed until October, 1859, 
when a young man of highly appreciative 
mind, and of dauntless courage ai&d skill for 
such explorations, Mr. Kellion F. Peddicord, 
undertook ajid prosecuted his researches here 



40 IIUiS^DRED DOME CAVE. 

for several weeks. His labors were rewarded 
with the discovery of some of the finest and 
grandest scenery of its kind that has yet 
been brought to human view. 

Through the polite invitation of its first 
explorer, Mr. Peddicord, and J. D. Courts, 
Esq., the owner of the cave, I visited it Jan- 
nary 19th and 23d, 1860. Leaving Glasgow 
Junction, on the Louisville and Nashville 
Railroad, in Barren Comity, Kentucky, about 
ninety miles south of Louisville, you ride for 
a mile over a smooth, level road, and then 
as you approach the house of Mr. Courts, 
the proprietor of the cave, you turn to the 
right and gradually ascend a rocky hill co- 
vered with its native forest for about half a 
mile; and then descending a few rods, you 
are at the mouth of the cave. The entrance 
is about half a mile from the top of the hill. 

The opening is about fifteen feet in diame- 
ter. As you enter the cave, you descend a 
slope of forty-five degrees, for about eighty 



HU.NUliEU DOME CAVE. 41 



feet, when you stop in Recej^tion Hall. This 
is a grand rotunda, fifty feet in diameter, and 
fifty feet high. Here you look around you 
with wonder and admiration. Just at your 
right, and projecting from the side of the 
rotunda, is Solomon's Throne, a magnificent 
collection of stalactites, hanging like curtains 
and drapery from the height of twenty feet, 
and reaching to the floor. They hang from 
the edge of a shelving rock, scolloped at .the 
edge, the scollops from one to four feet in 
diameter, so as to give it a most beautiful 
appearance. Your guide goes behind and 
among them, and as the light of his lamp 
glitters among the stalactites, you have a 
most beautiful sight. 

Turning now to the left of the entrance, 
you see the Genii's Retreat. This is a splen- 
did formation of stalactites, looking like a 
series of cascades, descending from the height 
of thirty feet to the floor. Passing between 
the Htalactites near the floor, you enter a little 



42 HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

grotto eight feet in diameter, and you are 
surrounded with the most exquisitely beauti- 
ful formations. 

Just beyond the Retreat, in the left hand 
corner of Reception Hall, is Jackson's Niche, 
a recess six feet wide and forty or fifty feet 
high. In the corner of Jackson's Niche is a 
succession of shelves some forty feet high, 
and fringes of stalactites hanging from each 
shelf Near the foot of this is the Hermit- 
age, a beautiful little grotto, made entirely 
of stalactites. Looking to the top of the 
wall opposite to the entrance of Reception 
Hall, you see a number of Epaulettes, a foot 
in diameter, the fringes being of stalactite. 
Near the foot of Solomon's Throne is a bro- 
ken stalagmite, six or eight feet through, 
nearly globular, which has apparently fallen 
from the adjacent rocks. 

From Reception Hall five avenues lead off" 
in different directions. You take Spring Av- 
enue, and soon you find a strenm of water. 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 43 

large as your arm, pouring from a crevice 
eiglit feet above you, clown into a wooden 
trough, which was placed there in 1812, by 
the men who manufactured saltpetre in the 
cave. You pass on through a large archway 
twelve feet wide, and six to ten feet high. 
The ceiling sometimes looks as if white- 
washed, and indented with little holes like a 
waffle cake. Over your head are hanging 
countless numbers of bats m a torpid state, 
thousands in a group. You find elegant 
formations of rock up this avenue for half a 
mile. But you return to Reception Hall. 

Now start again. You go over some loose 
rocks, climb up about six feet, and enter Re- 
turn Avenue. This at first is low, and you 
must stoop or crawl. But you soon come to 
quite a room. Here are Corinthian Columns 
of fluted limestone seven feet high. Now 
look off to your right. There is a horizontal 
crevice, a foot or two high, and extending 
indefinitely in width. Put your lamp in it. 



44 HUNDKED DOME CAVE. 

You see the Coral Reef. This is a calcare- 
ous ruffle, standing up from the rock six 
inches high and one or two inches thick, and 
reaching in varied and beautiful convolutions 
for rods in extent, and as far as you can see. 
Small and delicate stalactites are hanging 
from the upper wall, all over the region of the 
Coral Reef. Two avenues lead off from this 
room, but we shall return again to Reception 
Hall. 

You now go down through a hole in the 
rocky floor on one side of Reception Hall, 
and you are in Grand Entrance Avenue. 
Proceeding onward for fifteen or twenty rods, 
and passing the opening of an avenue or two, 
you come to Wall Street, a narrow and 
crooked channel through the rocks. Go up 
this some twenty rods and turn to your right 
into Ladies' Avenue. You now gradually 
ascend through most beautifully decorated 
walls, hanging with clusters which look like 
clusters of grapes. Going onward some 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 45 

thirty or forty rods, you reach Canada Hall. 
In it stands, or rather hangs, Brock's Monu- 
ment, a huge column of smooth limestone. 

Here you can easily inscribe your name on 
the soft stone wall, using a nail for a pen. 
While you are cutting your name, your ^uide 
has gone up the Hill of Science, and holding 
up his lamp, he calls to you to look. There 
he is on the side of the rock twenty-five feet 
high, at the top of what seems a waterfall 
of stone. Ten feet above his head is Flora's 
Wreath of stalactites. 

Return now to Wall Street, and try your 
skill through Falstaff's Punishment, for about 
six rods. If you are as fat as Sir John you 
may share in the punishment, for you enter a 
narrow, crooked channel in the rocks where 
you must get along edge-wise. Wo to the 
fashionable ladies' hoops that go through 
there ! But now you are in Broadway, and 
here is Dripping Dome, one hundred feet 
hio'h and fifteen feet in diameter at the baoO, 



46 HUNDKED DOME CAVE. 

a cavity that might contain a large church 
8teeple. The sides are of elegantly fluted 
limestone. 

Immediately under this dome is Kellion's 
Pit, thirty feet deep, into which my guide, 
the first explorer of this region, fell in one 
of his earliest excursions. It was named 
after him ; and it was a wonderful providence 
that he did not lose his life. By the assist- 
ance of his brother he was soon extricated 
but with a severe cut in his head. 

All along Broadway are beautiful incrusta 
tions of alabaster, covering the rocks with a, 
thin shell, from the thickness of paper to an 
inch or two. You can peel off yards of it, 
and tons of it are lying along the avenue 
which have fallen from the rocks above. 

Now take Court's Avenue to the right. 
The walls are covered with little globules of 
marble attached to the rocks by a slender 
stem of stone an inch or two long. You 
soon come to the Ocean Wave, which rise; 



huinJjued dome cave. 47 

from the iloor of the avenue like the Coral 
Reef, only the stone ruffle rises a little higher. 
As you proceed up this avenue a few rods 
these ruffles cross the avenue at regular inter- 
vals like railroad ties, and you suggest to a 
good humored slave-holder by your side that 
this must be the terminus of the underground 
7'ailroad. 

Return now to Broadway, and proceed 
along it thirty or forty rods. The walls ai'e 
covered with beautiful incrustations. You 
now see the Elephant, a huge rock partly 
projecting into your path, and about twice 
the size of an elephant and considerably re- 
sembling one. Passing this you turn to the 
left and enter Vineyard Avenue, which me- 
anders among most beautiful formations of 
rock and incrustations. 

Look at that magnificent grapevine, une- 
qualled in beauty and perfectness of resemb- 
lance to a grapevine loaded Avith clusters of 
grapes. But the grapes are of calcareous 



48 HUNDRED DOME CAYE. 

spar. The clusters hang closely grouped to- 
gether in a mass as large around as a barrel. 
This mass of clusters rises from the floor, at- 
taches itself to the wall, and when it is a 
little above your head, it extends ofi" horizon- 
tally as if lying over a tree-top. 

Beyond the Grape Vine the avenue is called 
the Cabinet, because it is fall of such a 
variety of formations. Look at that Golden 
Pillar at your right. ISTow sit down on a 
rock and pick up some of those ugly, round- 
ish, white looking stones at your feet. Some 
are as big as a hen's egg, others as large as 
your fist. Lay one on a rock and break it 
open with another stone. Is not that fine ? 
It is hollow, and the cavity is studded wdth a 
perfect bed of diamond-shaped, transparent 
crystals. These Geods will be elegant things 
on your parlor table or in a cabinet. 

Now return to near the Grape Vine, and 
turn to your right through a crevice which 
will just admit your body. Now you are in 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 49 

the Twin Doiiies. Tlie nrst is fifteen feet 
in diameter, of uniform size, and sixty feet 
high. Now pass through a little Gothic 
passage which requires you to stoop, and 
you stand in the other Dome. Its base 
is elliptical, eight by fourteen feet, and the 
Dome rises to the height of over two hun- 
dred feet.* The sides are of fluted rock, 
and down the side drips Cupid's Fountain ; 
the water is caught in a projecting basin 
of stone just high enough to drink from, and 
is delicious. 

Return now to the Elephant, and start out 
through Echo Avenue, a winding archway, 
where your footsteps ring and your voice 
sounds very loud. As you strike the floor 
with your cane it sounds hollow beneath, 
as if you could easily break through into 
unknown regions below. Who knovrs but 

* For distances and heights, I rely on the estimates of 
Mr. Peddicord, the explorer of this ca^e, who is a practical 
engineer, and whose accuracy I s;iw no reason to qnestiori. 



50 HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

you are treading upon the thin coverings 
of vast domes below you, hundreds of feet 
deep? But you pass safely on amid the 
rocks beautifully formed into cornices and 
mouldings. 

Now the avenue divides. You take the 
right hand one. This is Dome Avenue. 
You descend a few steps. What niches are 
cut out by falling water, though now dry. 
They look as if made for the reception of 
statues. But now you are in Everett's Dome, 
fourteen feet in diameter, and some three 
hundred feet high. 

Now climb a ladder twelve feet high, go 
' through a passage in the rocks, a few feet, 
and you are in Clay's Dome, sixteen feet in 
diameter, and as high as Everett's. Leave 
this h.igh perpendicular crevice, and go a few 
feet, to a ladder, down which you descend 
twenty-six feet. 

Now you are in Mammoth Dome. This is 
twenty feet across at the bottom, and tapers 



HUNDliED DOME CxVVE. 51 

gradually to the to]). Its height, who knows 
how much ! If its diameter were a little 
greater you might put Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment inside of it, and top that off with a tall 
church steeple, and fi'om the top of that you 
might perhaps see the top of the dome. But 
your guide has sought out passages through 
the rocks until he has, a few^ weeks ago, come 
into the dome some four hundred feet from 
its base, and fixed a pulley there, by means 
of which he now raises a lamp through that 
magnificent cavity. Up and up, and still up 
it goes, until it is like a star in the sky. The 
height of this dome is probably five hundred 
feet. Some say it is more. Who will de- 
r'^scribe it ? I cannot. 



CHAPTER IV, 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

(continued). 

But pass on. You descend among some 
rocks. Do not fall into Canopied Pit, for it 
is right in your path, and twenty-eight feet 
deep. You are now m the midst of Grecian 
columns, and as you pass on and rise a few 
feet you are among beautiful stalactites hang- 
ing like fringes from the edges of the rocks. 
They are from an inch to a foot in length. 

You now descend a ladder thirty-five feet, 
and are in the bottom of Eureka Dome. The 
floor is elliptical, nine by thirty feet, and 
the dome as high as the Mammoth Dome, 
higher tlian you can sec with your best lights. 



64 HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

Its walls are rugged upon one side, smooth 
on another, and frin.Qjed and draped with 
stalactites on another. Now raise your voice 
and sing Old Hundred with the Doxology, 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 
What grandeur and impress! veness are given 
both to the tune and the words, as they roll 
up through the vast domes, ringing and rever- 
bating in those rocky tubes like grand organ 
pipes five hundred feet long ! Returning 
now to Mammoth Dome, you stop and sing, 

" When I can read my title clear," 
and now more than ever before are impressed 
with awe and reverence amid these sublime 
works of your Creator. 

You now pass down a ladder twenty-eight 
feet into Canopied Pit. From its base you 
go through a low, Gothic passage into River 
Avenue. Here is a shallow pool of water 
only a few inches deep, and clear as crystal. 
There, catch that big crawfish, wrap him in 
your handkerchief and put him in your pock- 



ilUNDRED DOME CAVE. 55 

et. He is one of the natives of tliis region, 
white as milk. Not the sign even of an eye 
has he. Wliat does he want of eyes here, a 
thousand feet below tlie surface of the ground 
and a mile or two from daylight ? 

Look up and you see the Temple, and the 
door, a thin slab of stone standing out from 
the vail like a door, and closing the entrance 
to the Temple. Pass on^v^ard a few feet, and 
you see Ohio Monument, a massive column 
of smooth limestone rock, twenty feet high 
and six feet through. On the other side of 
the room is Franklin's Monument, like the 
Ohio. 

Enter another avenue and in a few steps 
you are at the Falls of Minne-ha ha. This is 
a little stream pouring down into a clear pool 
eight feet across, which you see through a 
wide crevice in the floor beneath you, while 
the fells and stream are out of sight, though 
they are plainly heard. 

Returning to Echo Avenue, you enter Fair- 



5b HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

field Avenue, and you are almost immediately 
in Kentucky Dome, twenty feet across and 
about two hundred feet iiigh. I must not 
stop to describe each minutely. But here 
is grandeur and sublimity of scenery under 
ground which it is impossible to conceive 
without seeing it. 

You now go down a gradual descent, 
through Punch's Trials, a narrow, crooked 
passage, though not difficult. There is Vul- 
can's Anvil sticking out of the rock, and a 
calcareous projection near it like a hanging 
lamp. The rocks are here covered with 
erystalizations which sparkle like gems. It 
is a kind of crystal net-work, like the delicate 
need]es of ice which form on water when it 
begins to freeze over. 

Proceeding along a v/inding passage some 
forty rods, you reach Molly's Boudoir, a beau- 
tiful room, over which rises Bailey's Dome, 
about two hundred feet high ; from the top 
of which falls a spring of pure water into a 



HUNDKED DOME CAVE. 57 

pretty basin below. Now descend a ladder 
eighteen feet and you are on the Natural 
Bridge, which crosses over St. Patrick's 
Tomb, a large cavity beneath. On your left 
rises Washington's Monument, a grand col- 
umn one hundred feet high. On your right 
is Irving's Monument, about equal to Wash- 
ington's. 

Now descend a ladder twelve feet and you 
are in Kane's Dome, two or three hundred 
feet high. Here you can enter St. Patrick's 
Tomb, and crack open more of those beauti- 
ful Geodes, full of crystals. But now climb 
that ladder eight feet, and soon another nine- 
teen feet, and you are in the Alpine Pass. 
Go on for one hundred feet and then descend 
thirty feet into Fluted Dome, which is two 
hundred and fifty feet high, fluted on all 
sides, with some grand recesses like adjacent 
domes. 

You now return to the Elephant, and pass 
along Broadway to Cheat Avenue. You 



58 IIUNDEED DOME CAVE. 

soon come to Mark Antony's Fit, over 
which you pass on a wooden bridge. The 
Pit is sixty feet deep below you. Above 
you, when you stand on the bridge, is Cleo- 
patra's Dome, about two hundred feet high. 
Across the pit, opposite the bridge, is Pom- 
pey's Pillar, a grand projection from the 
side of the dome fifty feet high. 

Pass along Grand Entrance Avenue, and 
you can find your Avay by a ladder to the 
bottom of Mark Antony's Pit. The bot- 
tom is about ten feet wide and fifty feet long. 
From this you descend six or eight feet, 
through a high archway, and going onward 
one hundred feet, you are in Prison Hall, 
eight feet wide, one hundred feet long, and 
fifty feet high. 

Return to Mark Antony's Pit, and take 
Fenn's Avenue. You descend sixteen feet, 
and then ascend again fourteen feet ; you are 
in IsTellie's Chamber, a room eight by fourteen 
feet, with an arched ceiling. This little grot- 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 59 

to is beautifully decorated with a kind of 
grape work, and crystalized incrustations. 
You pass down a ladder twelve feet, into 
Gibbon's Rest, a convenient stopping place. 

You now begin to enter upon the Ruins 
of Palmyra. You climb over and clamber 
among a shapeless mass of fallen rocks for 
several rods. The walls of the avenue an.d 
their projections strikingly resemble the ruins 
of some ancient city. 

Here you enter Duncan's Avenue, and im- 
mediately upon your right is Boone's Monu- 
ment, a pillar of stone ten feet through and 
twenty feet high. Around the top is an 
elegant cornice of stone, and the whole mon- 
ument is beautifully decorated with calcareous 
globules, from the size of a pin head to that 
of a hickory nut, attached to the column by 
a slender stem of stone. 

Following Duncan's Avenue, you are soon 
in a tight place. If you are a man of good 
size, just lay oif your coat, vest and hat ; 



60 HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 

then squeeze yourself through a very narrow 
channel m the rocks for a rod or two, crawl- 
ing part of the time. The rocks on both 
sides of you are thickly studded with globu- 
lar projections and sharp points line those on 
Boone's Monument, and render your ingress 
next to impossible. 

But you have got through and are now in 
the Cathedral, and feel richly repaid for your 
toil. See those grand arches and that rich 
ornamental work, far away above your head. 
Look also at those beautiful recesses in the 
walls, room enough for the images of nearly 
all the saints in the calendar. Whence came 
that Fallen Pillar at your feet? It was 
doubtless once a part of the grand frame- 
work above. 

Take now a little avenue and pass up it 
one hundred feet and you are in the Vestry 
Room, about twelve feet across and thirty 
feet high. 

You now retm-]! to Boone's Monument and 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 61 

t:ike Duncan's Avenue again. This is a 
grand passage. It is lofty and the sides 
consist of splendid colupans which unite in 
a lofty arch above your head. A walk of a 
dozen rods brings you to Black Donald's Pit, 
and you enter it at the bottom. It is circular 
and about, fifteen feet across. From this you 
ascend a ladder twenty- six feet and stand at 
the entrance of Wool's Avenue. Stop now 
and look back to the other side of the pit. 
There is a projection from the side exactly 
resembling an old fashioned Pulpit, a semi- 
circular prominence, the Bible-cushion being 
a layer of flint. Over the pit is a dome 
seventy-five feet high. 

Advancing for a dozen rods through Wool's 
Avenue, you stand at Capitola's Trap.* You 
ascend a ladder twenty-three feet through a 
perpendicular hole only three feet in diame- 
ter and escape out of the top of the trap. 

* These names were borrowed by Mr. Peddicord from 
Mrs. Routiiworth's story of the Hidden Hand. 



62 HUNDKED DOME CAVE. 

Now you are in Hurricane Avenue, a wind- 
ing passage, which by a gentle descent leads 
you back to Wall Street, and you pass along 
it again to Dripping Dome, under which is 
Kellion's Pit. You pass over the pit on a 
bridge and enter Pine Apple Avenue. Right 
by your side and above you are the most 
perfect representations of pine apples in stal- 
actite, the apples a foot or two long. These 
are very beautiful. There, too, is a stalag- 
mite Pyramid, eight feet through at the base, 
and six feet high. A crown of stalactites is 
twenty feet above you, and in the solid rock 
near you is set a magnificent collection of 
quartz crystals, called the Snowdrop Crystals. 

From this point you retui'n to the mouth 
of the cave, after a journey of seven or eight 
miles among the subterranean grandeurs. 
Yet you have not explored all these mysteri- 
ous avenues. 

What a field is here opened for the skill of 
the artist's pencil ! What delineations of 



HUNDRED DOME CAVE. 63 

grandeur could here be made ! ^Yill not 
some one of adequate skill undertake the 
M'ork, and reveal to the world in their true 
forms these scenes of beauty and sublimity 
which have so long been hidden from human 
view ? 

A visit to this cave is well worth a long 
pilgrimage. Its attractions are of a diiferent 
kind from those of Diamond and Mammoth 
Caves. 

The Diamond Cave excels in the exquisite 
beauty of its formations. The Mammoth 
Cave excels in its vast extent, and the Hun- 
dred Dome Cave excels in the variety, gran- 
deur and sublimity of its scenery. 



